If you don’t know about the calling and messaging feature with Alexa, check out our guide on how to set it up. Otherwise, read on how to block contacts that you don’t want to hear from over Alexa and your Echo devices.

To start, open up the Alexa app and tap on the Conversations tab at the bottom of the screen.

Next, tap on the Contacts button up in the top-right corner.

Scroll down to reveal the small “Block Contacts” button at the bottom and tap on it.

Tap on the contact that you want to block. In this case, only one contact shows up because I only have one contact in my contact book. Otherwise, all of your contacts will show up here.

Tap on “Block” when the pop-up confirmation appears.

When you block someone, they will still appear in your contacts list and you can still call or message them yourself. However, if they decide to call or message you, they’ll be none the wiser, since Alexa won’t tell them that you blocked them, and calls and messages just won’t be sent through all the way.

To unblock a contact, tap on the small “Block Contacts” button again and tap on the contact that you want to unblock.

And don’t forget that you can temporarily “block” all contacts from calling or messaging you by enabling Do Not Disturb, but once you disable it, any messages you received will come through, unlike actual blocking.

Craig LloydCraig Lloyd is a smarthome expert with nearly ten years of professional writing experience. His work has been published by iFixit, Lifehacker, Digital Trends, Slashgear, and GottaBeMobile. Read Full Bio »